Govt slammed for security cover to Mukesh Ambani

Left parties on Monday lashed out at the government for providing armed commando cover to top corporate leader Mukesh Ambani, saying the common people have been left in the lurch as gruesome incidents of rape keep happening.

"It is unprecedented that at a time when such ghastly and gruesome incidents of rape are taking place and people are demanding more security, Z-plus category of security is given to a top corporate leader like Ambani and the commoners left in the lurch," senior CPI(M) leader Basudeb Acharia told reporters in New Delhi.

In the same vein, veteran CPI leader AB Bardhan said at a time when the "police force is unable to provide security to its citizens, ensure safety for women, and even 4 or 5-year-old girl children are raped under their very nose, the government has ordered Z-plus security for the country's richest corporate tycoon Mukesh Ambani and even protection for his sprawling residential building Antilia.

"Our party demands that the government order be rescinded and the CRPF be sent back for their primary task," Bardhan said, adding, "This is the first time a private person, because he happens to be an Ambani, is being provided with such security for his person and his residence by a government which is failing every day to protect the common man, especially women and children."

To a question whether CPI(M) would support capital punishment in gruesome rape cases, Acharia said, "We will consider it, discuss it further, especially individual cases....The situation has changed and, therefore, this issue has to be thought over."

Ambani got the 'Z' category VIP security after the Union home ministry recently approved an armed commando squad following threat perception to the business tycoon.

The home ministry has tasked country's lead anti-Naxal operations force CRPF to take the responsibility with immediate effect after the proposal to this effect was cleared by the office of home minister Sushilkumar Shinde.

Under the 'Z' category security, Ambani will have pilot and follow-on vehicles with commandos armed with sophisticated weapons and they will give him proximate security every time he moves in Mumbai or any other part of country.

Sources said a security and threat analysis conducted by central security agencies recommended that Ambani should be provided round-the-clock armed security cover after which the home ministry issued the orders.

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has earmarked a 28-member team for the task culling personnel out from its battalion based in Uttar Pradesh.

This is the first time that the CRPF would be providing VIP security to a private person on the lines of a similar cover it extends to government functionaries in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab.

Recently, Ambani's office had also informed the Mumbai police about threat letters being issued to the honcho purportedly on behalf of the home grown terror group Indian Mujahideen (IM).

The city police is also planning to fortify Ambani's sprawling residential building 'Antilia' in south Mumbai's Altamount Road. Following the threat letter received by Ambani's office, security in and around Antilia has been tightened.

Shinde had recently told PTI that trimming of security cover to VIPs by the state governments had led to the sudden rush of people approaching his ministry for security after they apprehended threat to their lives.